Catchy tunes are Holden resident’s claim to fame

You may not know it, but you have probably heard the music of Holden resident Michael Nickolas while watching TV.

Nickolas, a composer of 15 years, has music placements in popular shows like “The Voice,” “The Colbert Report,” “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” and the 2014 feature film “Hector and the Search for Happiness.” Most recently, his music was licensed for his first-ever national advertising campaign, a Blue Diamond Growers almond commercial.

Nickolas’ upbeat guitar and catchy rhythm parallel the advertisement’s slogan, “get your good going.” Although his most recent claim to fame may last only 15 seconds, landing the spot is a big deal. (View his commercial here)

The “library business,” as Nickolas calls it, hasn’t been an easy way to make a living.

“Music creation and licensing is a very competitive field,” said Nickolas. “Companies looking to license music have an unbelievable amount of recordings to choose from and people to work with. The fact that my particular recording is being used in this campaign is very encouraging.”

His passion for creating started with a plastic guitar he picked up when he was 9. As his love for music grew he decided to try and make a career out of it. He attended Berklee College of Music, and after graduating, began performing in the New England area in the early ‘80s as a guitarist in a big horn band called High Function. He switched to rhythm and blues when he joined the band Universal Language in the early ‘90s.

It wasn’t until the early 2000s that he realized he was ready to try something new. His first placement took a couple of years but eventually his work was played in the soap opera “Passions.”

Now anywhere from 350 to 400 of Nickolas’ creations exist within music libraries used for TV shows and films. He isn’t often notified when his clips are chosen but sometimes he catches his familiar tunes unexpectedly.

“There are times where I am just watching cable TV and ‘American Pickers’ is on or something and I go, ‘hey that’s me,’” said Nickolas.

Nickolas runs his business, Studio Nine Productions, out of his Holden home. Sound absorbing panels, bass traps, and diffusers stick to the angled walls. The black foam pieces and hard white shapes cover the walls to break up the space and absorb frequencies, said Nicholas. On the far side of the room a working desk is topped with a sound board and multiple screens, his many instruments not far out of reach.

Michael Nickolas plays a tune. REBECCA HUMPHREY PHOTO

His day-to-day work includes tagging and uploading his music on different sites and searching for new opportunities. If he is working on a project, he uses the second half of the day for that or starts creating new pieces.

When he is starting a project his first step is listening to an example of what the library and/or company is asking for. From there, he starts with a single instrument and sound. Bit by bit he manipulates notes and sounds until the puzzle of notes are pieced together.

With close to 20 guitars that vary in sound and style hanging on the walls and filling racks in his home, he is set when it comes to guitar riffs. For other instruments, he hires musicians and friends alike to add to his collection when he can. Remaining sounds are created using his soundboard and keyboard.

A full song usually takes about a week to put together, he said.

After he finishes composing a song or sound clip lasting anywhere from 15 seconds to a few minutes, he submits the tune to a library that licenses the music. From there, it could end up being used by anyone who has access to the library.

“It is getting very very competitive right now,” said Nickolas. “Somebody can get a simple laptop set up in their bedroom and supposedly be a composer.”

To set his creations apart and construct unique sounds Nickolas said he uses real instruments as much as possible and tries to create things others can’t easily accomplish with a computer.

His favorite sounds to listen to are female jazz vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald but his work varies in genres from guitar jams to Siberian orchestra pieces and heavy drum beats.

Currently, Nickolas’s licensed pieces of music are out there “working for him,” but it hasn’t been the easiest way to make a living, he said. The majority of his income comes from custom writing compositions for the educational market. This includes things like educational CDs and programs. His most recent project was a 49-song collection that was paired with a language course created by Macmillan Educational Publishing.

Whether he is creating a jig for a commercial, a spot on a show or in a movie, the most crucial part of the job is the drive to create and the challenge keeps him going.